A Grieving Mother's Easter

It was so dark that Easter Friday, When they laid His body down. As though the hope of all creation, Went with Him into the ground. And she wept a bitter weeping, Only a mother’s grief can know. For this savior was her baby. She had loved and watched him grow. It was so dark that Easter Friday, When we laid her body down. As though the sunshine of a lifetime, Went with her into the ground. And I wept a bitter weeping Only mother’s loss can know. For she had been my little girl, I’d loved and watched her grow. Now when Easter comes it pains me, To see brightly colored eggs. For the coming of this season, Softly fills my heart with dread. For when everyone is celebrating, The resurrection found, This season marks the painful day, I laid my daughter down. But how bright that Easter Sunday, When He rose up from the earth. All creation felt the glory, Of new hope and life re-birthed. But none as deep emotion, As the joy in Mary’s face. To see her child back again, For one more sweet embrace. Oh how bright will be the sunrise, When we rise up from this earth. All the world will know His glory, As creation is re-birthed. But the deepest of emotion, Is seen on a mother’s face. To have my child back again, Once more in my embrace. For the joy of this reunion, I believe and I will wait, I’ll trust He doeth all things well, Though He give or though He take. Cause one day I’ll see my girl again, With sparkle in her eyes, Then I will hold her in my arms, To never say, Good Bye. For what we celebrate at Easter, Is not left within the grave. It is joy that’s daily given, And more joy that still awaits. Yet, all this is only possible, Because of Easter’s pain. When He was buried with our loss, And resurrected with our gain.By Marie Morrow

How different the scene would have been on that street corner, if we could have seen through heavenly eyes. Perhaps we would have seen a joyous company of angels come to welcome our precious child into a beautiful heavenly realm. Perhaps they would have assured her as she saw us overwhelmed with shock and grief that we would be well cared for. She may have seen each of us attended to closely by loving beings sent to comfort and guide us through our loss. Perhaps we would have seen her wave goodbye as she excitedly boarded a heavenly chariot sent to carry her to her glorious new home. Perhaps there was great joy that day, when all we could feel was our own deep pain. We knew she had gone to a better life. We knew of the joy that awaited her, but that joy seemed so far from us then. How can Heaven be so close, as to have your loved one passing through its door, yet to feel as though it were a million miles away? How can we, who know of its treasure and gain, still be so overcome by our own loss? Our eyes see such a different view from this side of the veil. We see a child snatched from our arms. We see a young life cut short too soon. We see the one whom we have loved and cared for with such tender devotion, suddenly taken from our lives. We see a daughter whom we have groomed and raised with such pride and promise, now vanish from our grasp. All the hope and expectancy of coming years now gone in an instant. We feel the gaping hole in our own hearts, as an integral part of our family is ripped away. We feel the horror of such a violent tragedy that crushed a frail, beautiful body. We see our precious girl, only moments before full of life and vitality, now lying lifeless and still. We feel her warm hands and stroke her soft hair, knowing that this is the only goodbye we will ever get. We feel the pain of wasted moments and regrets with no second chances. We feel so deeply the pain of our own loss, the longing to see her smile, to hear her laugh, to hold her again in our arms, to tell her once more that she is loved. For her it can be said, “Oh grave, where is thy victory. Oh death, where is thy sting.” She is free from this mortal body to feel no sorrow or pain, in a place where all tears are wiped away. Our mind and hearts know of the blessings and joys that lie before her. But for us, bound to this earthly realm, death takes on a different form. As believers it is true that, “We do not grieve as those who have no hope”, but that does not mean that we do not grieve. When the pain of loss so overwhelms our senses and the heart aches so deeply, what room is there left in this frail, feeble mind to feel the great joys of her gain. We know it in our understanding, but we see through a glass so darkly, subject to the weakness of our humanity. Grief, in some way or form, is given to all men to know, a common path which all must cross on the course of their life’s journey. Even Christ was not exempt from this fundamentally human experience, as he wept at Lazarus’ tomb. Why is it given to us in this life to know such heavy loss? What part of our earthly journey necessitates such an experience? What lessons and broken riches can only be found in these darkest places? Would our lives on earth be incomplete or our spiritual growth stunted if we never came so near to Heaven’s portal? Must it be that we come to know both sides of the veil? Is the pain of death part of the plan, that we may know truly the glories of the eternal? This much I do know. I am not the same person now as I was before. Grief has cut me open to the deepest places where my core being has been exposed, where God’s hands can reach around my heart and transform it like no other. I know that when all the outer layers are stripped away, then I come to know my true self, both my weakness and my strengths. I know that when the soul is so sorely pressed, that the glitter of this world loses its luster and the material loosens its hold. Ambitions and pursuits, once so important, fade into the background. We find ourselves grasping for a new sense of reality. It is from this place of loss that we can come to know Heaven’s gain. It is a slow and painful growth that matures and ripens the soul. It is only in the lonely quietness where the deepest utterings can be heard. Oh, to step back for a moment from my own hurting heart and see from the Heavenly view. God, grant me your blessed gift, to see beyond the present pain, to the joys of a bright tomorrow. Give me grace to live out my days in patient and humble service, till my child and I can be together again. Give me a portion of Heaven’s joy to carry with me here on earth today.By Marie Morrow

Just a Little Christmas CheerMy Christmas Eve Plea

There’s just one thing I’m praying for, One gift I need this year.I wish, God, you could spare for me, Just a little Christmas cheer. The lights are brightly shining,The gifts wrapped under the tree. I’ve given joy to everyone,But there is none left for me. I’ve done the Christmas baking,And I’ve played the Christmas songs, Hoping to have Christmas, As it should be all along. But my heart is feeling empty, And it’s hard to make it through, ‘Cause my child’s gone to Heaven, To have Christmas there with you. She is singing with the angels now, Where the stars are all aglow. And it’s left a sad and empty space In our family down below. So as Heaven’s choir sings tonight, To celebrate your birth, Could you spare a little Christmas cheer, To share with us on earth? I am praying for a Christmas star, To shine a ray of light. To beam through all this darkness, As it did that holy night. Oh, I wish to hear the angels sing, Of God’s good will to men. And I wish today some peace and joy, Would come to us again.

The vision lasted only a few seconds, but it left a big impression. I had been talking with a friend, when suddenly I saw a glimpse into the future. We were hugging, laughing, and talking about our lives—and we were in Heaven. This has happened to me several times. Sometimes it has been with a close friend, and other times it has been with someone I had just met. In each case I was left with the profound feeling that our relationship in Heaven was much deeper and more meaningful and longer-lasting than the friendship we have enjoyed in this life. I find that thought very comforting, perhaps because I’m somewhat isolated and lonely in my present situation. I have always been gregarious and had many friends, and friendships have always been very important to me. But fibromyalgia has a way of making a hermit of even the most sociable person. The aching muscles, fatigue, and sleep problems that come with this neurological disorder leave me too sick to go out with friends or attend parties, and often too sick to even talk on the phone. What do I have to talk about anyway, when I live in such an isolated world? And what about all of the people I met and helped in the course of my years of volunteer work before I got sick. Do they even remember me now? Are they thankful for my prayers, and have those prayers made a difference? Does my friendship still mean something to them? What’s left to show for those years? I’ve asked myself those questions as I lay alone in a dark room. But now, through this series of little visions, I understand better that this life truly is only a brief moment in time and that regardless how things are going now, someday those friends and I will be together again in heavenly bliss. It will be like old times, except then it will be in a perfect world where there is no more parting, pain, or sorrow. I will also meet you, dear reader whose name and life story I don’t yet know, and I think we’ll find we have a lot in common. We may have had very different lives, but we both will have experienced happiness and hardship, joy and sorrow. With old friends and new, we will go on to experience a whole new world. And most wonderful of all, we’ll be face to face and heart to heart with the One who loves and understands us like no other, the One who lived and died for us and rose to life again that we might live together in His love eternally, the ultimate forever Friend—Jesus.